Big Ass Goof Man

Sunday

Ah, the end of our first real week at Plaboo. While the living quarters and food situations are completely new and challenging, many of the occurrences are extremely similar to those in the US. The people, however, are friendlier and more welcoming. Sometimes I think of the way certain Americans treat foreigners and it makes me ashamed of our hospitality. The Thai people welcomed us with open arms, open minds, and open hearts. They want to learn everything they can from us and at the same time, want to teach us their lifestyle and culture. They are constantly laughing and smiling at us, at each other, and at themselves. They enjoy a fraction of the luxuries that we do in the US, yet somehow sustain a much higher level of happiness than most. It’s an attitude I hope to bring back with me upon my return and I can only wish the level of infectiousness found here comes back with me too.

So to repay the staff at Plaboo for all their hospitality, we made them their requested spaghetti. We found macaroni noodles and spaghetti sauce at the 7-11 (made by Heinz, but labeled “Thai Recipe Spaghetti Sauce”). We also bought garlic and mushrooms to add in the sauce and the supplies for garlic bread. Cooking at Plaboo is an experience in itself, so Roong, one of the high-school girls, helped us find our way around the kitchen. The sauce we bought was spicy (shocking considering it was a Thai recipe), but it was pretty tasty. Everything came out decent to our taste buds, however the villagers sang a different tune. We could tell as soon as they tasted it that something was amiss. They all talked in Thai to try and find the right word and then Lam said “ooo so sour!”. Sour?? I never think sour when eating spaghetti, but as I had a few more nibbles, I could see their point. We tried to explain that it usually has cheese on top, a salty counter to the sour tomato. Since cheese is basically non-existent here, we had to make do without. After a while, Narong (one of the older male staff members) got the bright idea to add sugar and pepper to the spaghetti. Everyone seemed to like that a bit more, but overall I think it was a bust. At least they liked the garlic bread. One bright spot to our meal, however, was that Lam told me that everyone keeps telling her my smile looks like a famous Thai superstar and that, coupled with my pale skin, is why everyone seems attracted to me. I always knew I would be a superstar somewhere, just never guessed it would be Thailand!

After lunch I worked with the older Thai women in the village on some vocabulary. We made flashcards and I used these for the lesson. They seem to catch on really quick, and its fun to teach because each lesson is filled with lots of laughter. Tia, my favorite sassy villager, gave everyone a huge laugh when I held up a picture of bananas and she screamed out ever so confidently: Buffalo! Now every time she sees me, she screams buffalo and doubles over with laughter.

Later in the evening, Sao came back for a grammar lesson. It’s crazy how close I can feel to her after only a week. We went through an activity in her English book. It gave a sentence in active voice and she had to change it to passive voice. She struggled a bit at first because the verb was write, which has a few tricky tenses (wrote, written). But she really picked it up quickly. I can tell she gets a bit frustrated at times, but she works very hard at getting it right and learning as much as she can. Sao is one of those people who you just know will do something big with their life and I help to help pave her way a bit!

Li has wanted to show us her vegetable garden for a while now, and we finally got a chance to go. We rode the mopeds out to the plot, which is located at near the entrance of Plaboo. The plot is about an acre big and is adjacent to a pond. Li immediately put us to work, filling up buckets from the pond and watering the banana trees, lettuce, cilantro, papaya trees, corn and cucumbers. Li does this everyday, usually with the aid of her quiet, hardworking boyfriend, who showed up to help. It really makes you realize the luxury of a hose, sorry to my Mom if I ever complained about moving the sprinkler!

While walking with my girl Sao through the garden, she slipped and fell with her bucket. She rolled her ankle a bit so Stephanie and I (the big Americans) helped her to the moped so she could sit. While I was sitting with her later, she said “I fell right on my ass”. I was shocked! Ass! Ha! It was so funny to hear her say it, so I asked her where she learned the word “ass”. She said there is a singer in Thailand named Big Ass Goof Man. What a name. Apparently, she had no idea that it was a bad word, so I taught her “butt” instead. Needless to say, I think she will continue using “ass” anyway.  

We returned to Plaboo for dinner, which included some of the fresh lettuce, cucumber and cilantro that we had just picked. I also finally determined what the spicy slaw consists of that shows up at every meal: basically papaya. It is called Sum Tom salad, and is something I am used to eating in Philly! However, it is much spicier here and also has a vinegar taste to it as well. So far, Americanized Thai food has been nothing like the real thing, but I guess I expected as much.

Monday

Today marked our first day teaching at the nearby village. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but we are definitely getting used to that. The hardest part is not knowing how to prepare because Lam was wasn’t sure of how old the kids would be or their existing knowledge of English. We met with the director of the school when we arrived, who informed us that we would be teaching 4-12 year olds, quite the large range. He wanted to split them up into 4-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds, and I got placed with the 4-9 year olds. This is probably going to be my most difficult teaching gig of the week because of the large range in age. Some of them know a few things, some of them know nothing, and some know a lot. Additionally, we will be there for three hours each day, which is a lot of time.

I spent the first half going over vocabulary words to gauge their knowledge. The little kids were getting a little lost, while the older kids seemed bored at times. I will have to find a balance between the ages if I want this class to be successful. For the second half of class, I took them outside and played Duck Duck Goose and a few other schoolyard games that they taught me. We also sang some songs (Old MacDonald was a big hit) and played Simon Says, which they loved. 

After the teaching was complete, we met with the director, a few of the teachers, and the Head Policeman, who was visiting for the day. They brought us into the outdoor eating area and served us lunch. They were definitely trying to cater to the Americans as the served us rotisserie chicken and shrimp fried rice. I must admit, it was delicious. The interesting thing about lunch was that the men, including the head policeman, were drinking whiskey throughout the entire lunch. We have observed that females do not drink here; we are not even offered a drink. There are a few village drunks, but they are always male. I have never seen a female drink. Anyway, they got pretty slammed during the lunch and then I guess went back to teach. Ha, they would get sued in the states for sure.